Go-Jek discontinues groceries-shopping service Go-Mart

Photo credit: Go-Jek

Go-Mart, the personal grocery-shopping service offered by Go-Jek, has ceased operating. In its place, the ride-hailing firm is promoting what appears to be a stripped-down shopping feature named Go-Shop. It isn’t clear at this stage if and when Go-Mart will make a return.

Many Go-Jek users in Indonesia will have noticed that Go-Mart has been unavailable over the past few days. When navigating to Go-Mart within the Go-Jek app, users are currently presented with a message that reads: “Go-Mart has stopped operating. But don’t be saaad, you can still get your daily needs with Go-Shop!”

A screengrab of what Go-Jek users currently see when they navigate to Go-Mart / Image credit: Tech in Asia

Launched in late 2015, Go-Mart allowed users to browse and buy products from partner stores on the Go-Jek app, and have them delivered to their door. Because many available merchants had a formal agreement with Go-Jek, users could see the price of items before deciding to make a purchase.

Go-Shop, on the other hand, doesn’t list products. Rather, it allows users to buy pretty much anything by handing their shopping list to a Go-Jek driver and sending them in the direction of their preferred shop. However, this means that there is potentially more friction for users, since they have to provide drivers with product descriptions, and exact prices aren’t known and agreed on beforehand.

Rival ride-hailer Grab recently unveiled GrabFresh, an on-demand groceries shopping service it’s running in partnership with HappyFresh. This integrates HappyFresh’s own platform into the main Grab app, enabling Grab users to order groceries and get them delivered.

In addition, Grab launched GrabAssistant – a personal shopper feature similar to Go-Shop – in Manila this July.

Michael Say, vice-president of corporate communications at Go-Jek, told Tech in Asia that Go-Mart is “undergoing development” in order to provide users “a shopping service that offers more flexibility, while enhancing the consumer experience and providing a better impact to merchant partners.”

He didn’t confirm if Go-Mart might relaunch at a later date, though he said Go-Jek would be bringing “more innovative instant shopping services” to the table “in the near future.”

Tech in Asia has contacted Go-Jek for further details but had not received a response at time of publishing.